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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This was really good. A page turner. I really like Hazel and hope to see her in the future. (  ) maryintexas39 | May 21, 2009 |  Grisly, but good read. The main character, Hazel, has some strong flaws that make her a very real character. Odd story lines that dwindle or disappear made me wonder if this is the first of a series; if not, if started as a writing exercise for the author and turned into a decent book. I'd love to know who the author is. Educated guesses, anyone? (  ) fleagirl | Apr 30, 2009 | Meh. Pacing started off strong and gripping, but broke down midway through. On the other hand, the characters were well-developed and complex, and I'd give them another look should there be a series. Hoped I'd be able to figure out which "literary novelist" the pseudonymous Inger Ash Wolfe is, but no such luck. (  ) tmoran | Dec 8, 2008 | The Calling A Novel by Inger Ash Wolfe Harcourt, 2008 PREPARE 1. Take a look at a map of Canada. Look at the wide expanse from the northern tip of Vancouver Island in the west to the Atlantic Ocean in the east. 2. Familiarize yourself with the various police services in Canada. Learn a few abbreviations, RCMP, OPS, CSIS. 3. Review the ingredients for a modern detective/mystery novel: a puzzle to be solved; an intelligent protagonist matched against an antagonist of comparable skill and tenacity; a fast paced race against time; a cast of interesting and believable characters interacting in interesting human ways with loyalty, jealousy, and love; the use of forensic science to help solve the puzzles; some religious mumbo-jumbo to frighten the reader with suggestions of a deeply puzzling universe possibly inhabited by non-natural entities. 4. Seek out a comfortable chair of sofa. If you have a seat belt available, attached it securely. READ Ready? Strapped in? Go. Open to page one and begin reading. If you are lucky have someone bring you food and drink as required for you will want to stay until the end, will not want to interrupt your reading for such trivialities. Depending on your reading speed you should emerge in three or four hours filled with the excitement and awe of having spent those hours with a fully human, professional Detective Inspector, Hazel Micallef, who has been juggling many responsibilities of family and career while involved in the biggest and weirdest murder case in recent times. Place names are important; hence the need for a Canadian map. Vast distances slip by quickly in this fast-paced, chronologically presented novel. Chapter titles are dates. Characters are complete. Action is described in great detail with skill. A puzzling crime comes to the attention of Detective Inspector Micallef and the bodies begin to pile up as a connection is established among a number of suspicious deaths across the country. It is the biggest case ever for this small town police force struggling to maintain its autonomy against the provincial centralization of police services. Forensic evidence is puzzling for each body seems to have been splashed with the blood of many others. Who is responsible for this spree of murders? I will say no more about plot. You have to read it. If you are a fan of detective stories you will want to read The Calling. If you are a fan of good fiction you will want to read The Calling. ENJOY Finished? Pour yourself a Canadian whiskey. Call a friend who has read the book. Spend two hours talking about the twists and turns of the novel. Look at the back cover of the book where you will see: "Inger Wolfe is the pseudonym for a prominent North American literary novelist." Try to guess who Inger Wolfe is. Later when you retire for the night prepare for some graphic nightmares. (  ) delan | Oct 27, 2008 | austcrimefiction | Oct 19, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0151013470, Hardcover)There were thirteen crime-scene pictures. Dead faces set in grimaces and shouts. Faces howling, whistling, moaning, crying, hissing. Hazel pinned them to the wall and stood back. It was a silent opera of ghosts. Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived all her days in the small town of Port Dundas and is now making her way toward retirement with something less than grace. Hobbled by a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, and feeling blindsided by divorce after nearly four decades of marriage, sixty-one-year-old Hazel has only the constructive criticism of her old goat of a mother and her own sharp tongue to buoy her. But when a terminally ill Port Dundas woman is gruesomely murdered in her own home, Hazel and her understaffed department must spring to life. And as one terminally ill victim after another is found—their bodies drained of blood, their mouths sculpted into strange shapes—Hazel finds herself tracking a truly terrifying serial killer across the country while everything she was barely holding together begins to spin out of control. Through the cacophony of her bickering staff, her unsupportive superiors, a clamoring press, the town’s rumor mill, and her own nagging doubts, Hazel can sense the dead trying to call out. But what secret do they have to share? And will she hear it before it’s too late? In The Calling, Inger Ash Wolfe brings a compelling new voice and an irresistible new heroine to the mystery world. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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